


step into the rainbow

by green_piggy



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, how do you tag, i promise that compared to like 90 percent of what i write this isn't fucked up or painful or angsty, mostly Soft(TM) though, pre-game, spoilers for zeke and pandoria's backstory, they add a new member to their family :')
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 04:07:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17317805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/green_piggy/pseuds/green_piggy
Summary: Her prince didn't smile.





	step into the rainbow

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [home is behind, the world ahead](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15872214) by [Angyie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angyie/pseuds/Angyie). 



> hey y'all read the fic this was inspired by (link's right there see i'm so kind) because it's Good Shit thanks that's all have a smashing day ily

Not to sound like an old grandma who smiled and said _“But have you tried yoga?”_ at any person who said they were depressed, but her prince _still_ had yet to crack a single smile since they had left Tantal.

Okay, so she hadn’t known that Ozychlyrus - no, no, _Zeke_ , her bad - for that long. He’d pretty much gotten kicked out as soon as he’d awoken Pandoria; doing so seemed to be the last straw for his long suffering father, apparently.

Still, even in these few months, he’d grown from about her height to a good bit taller than her. Not much, though, and he was way too scrawny for his own good. Not to mention that the eyepatch kind of ruined his look. But he’d had that eyepatch on him when they had first bonded, when she had opened her eyes with no memories and to the wide gaze of a shivering teen who _really_ should not have been touching a core crystal, not at his age (barely fifteen years, if even that). She knew, somewhere, in the far _far_ recesses of the memory that she shouldn’t have had, that people older than him had died when the bonding attempt had gone wrong.

Maybe he wouldn’t have cared if he had died.

(Or maybe she was overthinking. She _really_ hoped she was overthinking.)

She still remembered the _livid_ scolding he’d gotten from his father afterwards, although it would have been impossible to miss the jealousy in his father’s voice. _He’d_ never been able to summon Genbu’s most important Blade, after all.

Zeke had had that eyepatch from the moment they’d met, and she suspected he’d have it until the moment he died. She’d yet to see underneath it, and the one time she’d asked, he had just laughed it off and insisted that he thought it looked cool.

They both knew that that wasn’t the truth.

Still, Mysterious features like eyepatches raised _questions._ They’d gotten plenty of them even while in Tantal - her prince didn’t exactly _look_ Tantalese, not with his pale skin and lack of markings and ghostly hair, a spectre even in the sheer white of Tantal’s eternal snow. He didn’t belong, not in Tantal; not _anywhere_ , Pandoria was starting to suspect.

She’d need to work out a reliable backstory for the eyepatch. He didn’t have the best eyesight, so maybe contacts..?

For now, though, she had one mission; to look after her Driver, come thick and thin. She’d be his big sister, the family that he had never quite gotten.

They’d been hopping through a few Titans by now, and currently found themselves at the Leftherian Archipelago. Pandoria still wasn’t used to the sensation of grass under her feet instead of smooth ice. Even now, she had one shoe off, wiggling her toes about and feeling the blades tickle between them. Tantal had grass, true, but it was only the odd patch of dying greenery that littered a freezing ground, and what tiny blades there were were coated in a sheen of ice too cold to touch.

Her prince, though, seemed to _refuse_ to allow himself to have fun. Even though, y’know, there was absolutely nothing stopping him from doing so. His dad had disowned him, so _what_ did he have to lose!? Honestly!

But _nope_ , Zeke was just leaning against a rock, eye closed, mouth in the thin straight line it always was. He would have looked like he was napping, almost, were it not for the fluttering of his eye any time a monster roamed near. None of the monsters were in an attacking mood, thankfully, leaving them alone with the whistling winds and the sensation of _life_.

She glanced over to Zeke again. He looked too large in that massive black jacket he’d had since they’d first set off, even with his recent growth spurt putting him a few good inches above her. It made him look even younger than what he was.

She’d figured out her plan a while ago, shortly after they’d first set off. She’d make her prince smile, make him _happy_ , and the best way (probably) of doing so was to act silly. Besides, she enjoyed it, so it wasn’t a total loss. She’d play the fool in a desperate attempt to make her Driver smile. Maybe she’d succeed. Maybe she wouldn’t, but it had to be better than having _both_ of them moping and being all sad, hadn’t it?

He wasn’t _always_ sad, though, and he hadn’t been quite _this_ sad before they left Tantal. There were times, as rare as they were, that he seemed to _allow_ himself happiness. When he spotted a rare monster and openly gaped at it, or twirled his first flower between his fingers, his eye the widest Pandoria had ever seen it, or cracked a cheek-splitting grin at a particularly beautiful sunset… she wanted to see him smile, more and more. He didn’t deserve to be miserable - no one did, even if _he_ thought he did, for some strange reason.

Probably something like “hurr durr my people don’t get to enjoy this so why should I enjoy it hurr durr”.

(It was strange, how much he both rejected and longed for Tantal. He _hated_ being its royalty, Pandoria could tell, but even as young as he was, he wanted to help all of his people with an almost palpable desperation. He cared too much for his own good.)

So, of course, she was going to enjoy this world enough for both of them. Maybe if he saw her taking it easy, he’d start to do the same.

Baby steps, though. She knew she was going to be stuck with him for a long, long time.

There was a small puddle of water nearby, with the odd fish bouncing in and out of it. Intrigued, Pandoria stood up and walked over to it, plonking herself on a boulder next to the water. Yanking the other shoe off, she dipped her legs into the water - it was warm, nothing at all like back in Tantal, and the heat traveled all the way into her heart.

She swung her legs back and forth without a care in the world, careful to not accidentally discharge herself in the water, content to watch the fish swim in their own little worlds.

Her foot collided with something - a pebble, perhaps—

And the soft squeak that followed immediately made her stop moving. She glanced up just as whatever she had kicked thumped into a batch of grass nearby.

Zeke looked up with a startled noise; Pandoria was already hurrying towards the source of the squeak. If she had somehow _kicked a fish_ out of the water, she didn’t know if she would laugh or collapse of embarrassment on the spot.

It wasn’t a fish, though. It was larger than that, but only just. It had landed on its back and its tiny green legs were wiggling in the air. Stuck on a small pebble, it was unable to get up of its own accord.

She slid her fingers underneath it, gently, _gently_ , until she had the creature in her grasp.

“My Prince, look!” She held out the tiny turtle in her cupped hands, smiling.

He looked at it for a few seconds - and then his face broke out into the gentlest smile Pandoria had ever seen him wear, and _Architect,_ she would gladly die if it meant seeing that smile again.

Crouching down, Zeke held out a hand for the little turtle, with that soft smile that could slay bunnits. Pandoria felt the turtle’s cold, slimy body shift across her palm; then, a short while later, it was on Zeke’s glove.

“What is it?”

“I dunno.” Pandoria leaned in close. “It kinda looks like Genbu, doesn’t it..?”

“I think it’s a turtle.” Zeke frowned. “I mean, I’ve never _seen_ one, but… it looks like one, doesn’t it?”

“I’m four months old, Princey, how am I meant to know what a turtle looks like?”

She did, really, but Zeke’s small burst of laughter made her grin in return. “Fair enough.”

They stood there in silence, watching the creature shuffle about on Zeke’s hand. Slowly, he stretched out a finger from his other hand and booped the turtle’s head. It shifted back a little, but didn’t react in any other way. Instead, after several seconds, it tucked its legs in and laid down in Zeke’s palm.

Pandoria could physically feel her heart _melt_.

“Pandoria, can we keep him?”

He looked so _young_ in that moment, like his actual age, his eye gleaming and smile stretching his cheeks; he had _dimples_ , he could _not_ get any cuter even if he tried.

It was a good look. It suited him.

“Yeah, of course!” She clapped her hands together. “He’d be _excellent_ emergency food supply.”

“Wha - no, _no_!” Zeke cried. “As a pet! A _mascot_!”

“A mascot?”

“W-well…” His face coloured a little. He covered his eyepatch with his hand in a very poor attempt to hide his blush as he glanced down. “You… said so yourself, yeah? That we’re representing Tantal.”

“What, and _I_ don’t make a good mascot?”

“You’re made of light bulbs, Pandoria.”

With a growl, she flicked his nose. “I am _not_! And ‘sides, just call me Pandy! How many _times_ do I have to tell you that!? I’m your big sister!”

He laughed, swatting her hand away. “Ya have to admit that we can’t get much better than this little fella here.”

The ‘little fella’ had already made himself at home, and decided his fate for all of them; he was curled up in Zeke’s hand, eyes sliding shut.

Zeke’s face turned pensive. “And… besides…”

“Yeah?”

“It’d be like… I dunno, having home with us. No matter where we go.” At once, he tried to laugh off his own words, glancing away while rubbing his neck. “I-I mean, it looks like Genbu.”

“Having home with us, no matter where we go…” Pandoria smiled. “That’s sweet. I like it. Let’s do it!”

And so, it was on that day, that they adopted Turters.

“Wait - he needs a name!”

“Oh! Umm… Shellhead!”

“With all due respect, my Prince, that is a _terrible_ name.”

“Well, do _you_ have any suggestions?”

“...Tortoise?”

“He’s a _turtle_!”

Although it would take them many, many months to name their new family member.


End file.
